Perception of war in video games

Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal visits DePauw

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(left to right) Professors Dan Solberg, Jeff Kenney, and Wafaa Bilal discuss art and Islamophobia. NATALIA COSTARD / THE DEPAUW

By Kelly Siempelkamp

Iraqi-American artist Wafaa Bilal gave insight into the difference between realism and reality when it comes to playing video games during his visit to DePauw on Thursday.

Students and professors eager to hear about Bilal’s work packed Peeler auditorium. Couches were set up on stage for a discussion panel with Bilal and other professors, including Associate Professor of Anthropology Mona Bhan, Professor of Religious Studies Jeff Kenney, Associate Professor of English Harry Brown, and Assistant Professor of Art and Art History Dan Solberg. This smaller setting provided a space for Bilal to connect with the audience on a more intimate level.

Bilal currently teaches at New York University and previously studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. As a professor, “It is important for people to be better at themselves,” Bilal said. He hopes to portray this belief throughout his project.

The session began by showing Roger Stahl’s film, “Returning Fire,” which analyzes how detrimental video games are to society’s interpretation of the reality of war. Featured in the film was Bilal’s project, “Domestic Tension,” or more commonly known as “Shoot an Iraqi.”  

In 2007, Bilal conducted a project in which he set up a paintball gun in his home to allow anyone to shoot at him virtually. Over the course of a month, Bilal was shot about 80 million times by more than 60,000 people from all over the world.

After being forced to leave his homeland of Iraq for criticizing Saddam Hussein, and losing his brother and father in the Iraq War, Bilal went to Chicago to pursue his artwork. His fascination with video games gave him the idea to conduct this project. He hoped to break down the emotional barrier that playing these video games creates.

A constant theme throughout “Returning Fire,” was the inaccurate representation of war in video games. Stahl concluded in the film that people of younger ages cannot comprehend the lives sacrificed in fighting these wars in large part because of this inaccurate representation.

Bilal said the emotional connection he has to Iraq granted him the responsibility to decide when it is wrong to train young people about the unsentimental aspect of virtual war represented in video games.

The difference between Bilal’s project and other video games is that the creators of video games most likely do not have an emotional connection to the war being depicted, like Bilal had. This emotional barrier explains why video games are inaccurate representations of war.

Many people wondered why Bilal decided to conduct such a project because they did not understand what his motives were. In the film, Bilal was featured on the Free Speech Radio Network in an interview hosted by Mancow Muller.

Muller participated in Bilal’s project by shooting the paintball gun at Bilal during the interview. Muller assumed that Bilal was giving people the choice to either donate money, or to shoot paintballs at him. Muller attempted to humiliate Bilal, but Bilal made a conscious decision not to defend himself.

A student in the audience was curious about Bilal’s experience with Muller, and if he was prepared for Muller’s ignorance or if he felt empowered to have people noticing his work.

The audience was taken back by Bilal’s response. “It is important to let others speak and let the ignorance come out because in the end it is doing something good,” Bilal said. “We should let people talk and to not talk over other voices. People will realize how ridiculous their voices and opinions are when spoken out loud.”

By challenging the ignorance of others, this is how in the end we are “doing something good,” Bilal said.

Monika Worwa, a first-year student taking a painting class at DePauw, said she hoped to learn about Bilal’s project. “Since I am taking Painting, I want to see how different the two [painting and video games] are,” said Worwa. “I hope that this experience opens my eyes to different styles and how to incorporate other cultures to help improve my artwork in the future.”

Da’Jeal Willaby-Partee, a first-year student taking a video game narratives class, reflected on what he learned and how his perception of video games has changed. He stated that he never considered how video games could be deceiving. “I believe that video games should not be saturized,” Willaby-Partee said. “If you are trying to make a video game to depict war, then you have to actually depict war and not glorify the heroic parts to appeal to people of younger ages.”

Another student asked Bilal what artists have to be good at. Bilal stated the importance of people being the best versions of themselves. “Never impose political, economic, or social issues on other people. Understand who these other people are and what essentially matters to them.”  said Bilal. “As an educator, empower them [the students] in whatever they want to achieve.”